Stoicism
What are the three "good passions" according to the stoics? What three "disturbances" do they replace?
Good: Joy, desire and caution Bad: mirth, covetousness and fear
What school held that the good life, and hence the moral life consisted in the endurance of pain? Name some members of this school.
Marcus Aurelius was a stoic, the good is the indifference to pain
What were the two main reasons for the stoics saying that sorrow was incompatible with virtue?
Sorrow requires evil, there is no evil in a virtuous man Sorrow is a disease of the mind, the virtuous must have a clear mind
What do the three "good passions" have in common? Is there a form of sorrow that has this trait, too? Would such a sorrow then be considered good?
all of the passions are ruled by logic, sorrow can also be ruled by logic if it is moderate
For the Stoics, "to cause" = "to _____________." Explain why they thought this was the case.
result, since the Logos is the cause of everything then it will already know the result
Is there a contradiction within this school of thought? If so, what is it?
since the Logos is all powerful and causes everything then we have no free will and everything is already predetermined
How did the later members of this school amend the theory, and why?
they said that the Logos created us out of the Void/Chaos, and whenever evil occurred it was because our body would overpower our soul. this is false because it would mean the Logos is not all powerful
Did the early members of this school deny the existence of evil as evil?
yes they believed since the Logos was good and controlled everything there was no such thing as evil
Can you outline Aquinas' response to their two reasons?
1. all men have committed some sin at some point, and through atonement they can become virtuous. so even the virtuous can sorrow for the past evil's 2. virtue requires moderate sorrow for all things that thwart virtue no matter what they are. So since virtue is only attained by those with well-conditioned minds then sorrow cannot be a disease of the mind for the virtuous.